Posted on 09/30/2019 3:31:56 PM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
WASHINGTON: Ousted National Security Advisor John Bolton said Kim Jong Un “will never give up” nuclear weapons voluntarily — an implicit warning to his former boss. Bolton was restating a consensus view of the Intelligence Community, one that runs counter to President Trump’s faith that the North Korean dynast can be wheedled and cajoled.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies today, Bolton attracted a forest of TV cameras hoping for some fireworks. They probably thought they were getting something hot when Bolton made his comment about North Korea but, as Breaking D readers know, the Intelligence Community’s top expert on North Korea, Markus Garlauskas, said two years ago that Kim “does not intend to negotiate those (nuclear) capabilities away at any price.”
But Bolton also made pretty clear he does not agree with President Trump’s tactics of calling Kim his good friend and of dismissing violations of international law each time the tubby North Korean leader launches a ballistic missile. Bolton noted that time is on Kim’s side, not ours.
“Every day that goes by makes North Korea a more dangerous country,” he said at CSIS. “When does it become too late? Today is better than tomorrow. Tomorrow is better than the next day.”
In perhaps the most telling moment, the highly respected North Korean expert at CSIS, Victor Cha, pressed Bolton on Trump’s “bromance” approach to diplomacy, asking if it was the best way to get to an agreement.
“I’m not going to comment on that,” Bolton said with a piercing glance. “Nice try.”
The bottom line for Kim, Bolton made clear, is that he has made “the strategic decision” to “do whatever he can to keep a deliverable nuclear weapons capability and to develop and enhance it further.”
John Rood, one of the top officials at the Defense Department, spoke later in the day at CSIS and he spoke almost exclusively about the US-South Korean alliance, noting that the State Department has “the lead” in negotiations to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
Pressed on whether Bolton was right about whether North Korea would denuclearize, Rood said, “that’s the very question we’re seeking to answer with the negotiations our president is leading,…Time will tell if we’re successful.”
I’m more into Asian press on North Korea. Not so much on this deep state stuff
He’s likely right about that.
Hey! WHO hired this Bolton guy in the first place?!
Oh really Mr Bolton. Tell us more. How about your ties to the Deep state. Why don’t you tell us what they have on you that keeps you in line? Bolton is a traitor straight up.
Who wrote this?
This post and mostly all others here pretty good on the name calling side, but here is the challenge: Perhaps. Listen to the content of the CSIS Bolton talk today, and logically counter it point by point. Is this something you did or can do?
“The strategic decision Kim Jong-un is operating through is that he will do whatever he can to keep a deliverable nuclear weapons capability and to develop and enhance it further,” Mr. Bolton said during an appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Under current circumstances, he will never give up the nuclear weapons voluntarily.”
I wholeheartedly agree. All the evidence I have seen shows me this to be true.
Agree or disagree? That’s really the core of the question if you want to get to the root of it. What would be the counter to this assertion. Nobody here yet has provided.
Not sure I have much of a view about it, but I think there's a topic about it, rings a bell anyway. Thanks for your kind remarks.
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LOL
I’m quite certain Trump knows this. He said as much when he started trying to work things out at several press conferences. But it certainly beats the war lobby’s bold fixation on the idea that no progress whatsoever would ever be possible. Trump has given us three years without the constant nuclear threat every day in our faces.
We can't attack them because Seoul would be devastated from the NORK's immense artillery just across the DMZ. Sanctions are not working. Bribing them doesn't work as in the Clinton days. I don't have the answer. Do you have an idea to stop this maniac?
BTW, where is China with all their supposed influence? Do they really want a nuclear neighbor>
If you're talking about the NORK nuclear development, you're incorrect. Satellite photos show them building new installations. You think they're growing hydroponic plant factories there?
Probably right. It’s worth trying, anyway.
Bolton is right of course, that the NORKs can’t be trusted - but POTUS already knows this. Bolton thinks the President is gullible because he often acts friendly toward his adversaries - he’s anything but gullible.
President Trump likes to keep his adversaries off balance by constantly mixing social banter, public praise and flattery, with tough talk and actions.
Any so-called “praise” the President has for Kim and other dictators is about as sincere as Nancy Pelosi saying she prays for President Trump, or President Trump “congratulating” Xi for 70 years of Chinese communism.
The President benefits from this in a few ways. First, he uses controversy to take control of the news cycle and force issues into the open that would otherwise be blocked. Second, he makes himself unpredictable, and keeps his adversaries guessing. Third, he pushes back against political correctness by always bending and breaking their rules. Fourth, he does not let his emotions control him - he doesn’t get in angry fueds with foreign leaders - he stays civil and friendly and jerks the dialogue open - he avoids offending them and calling them out their lies because he knows that will end the dialogue. Fifth, he provokes the Democrats into defending the indefensible, by purposely framing political issues in a way that is distasteful to the Left and will make them hate him even more.
They want to distance themselves from him at all costs, so just to be opposite, they embrace open borders, late term abortions, 90% tax rates, job-killing regulations, men in girls locker rooms, gun confiscation, taking down Christian symbols - you name it - all loony ideas that are extremely unpopular with the voters - and by talking the way he does, he has somehow maneuvered them into embracing this lunacy!
I could go on - there are a million reasons why a President would be better off acting “Unpresidential”. I think Bolton knows a great deal about international affairs, but this President doesn’t need any help in that arena.
The President is a political genius - he has positioned himself on the good side of every issue while sticking the Democrats with all the unpopular and indefensible positions.
This is great! The Democrats and the press are now accusing President Trump, a Republican, of not being hawkish enough! He’s really got the best of both worlds here.
As far as Bolton goes, he is definitely a known neo-con. Trump brought him in for a purpose. To gain cred with the old guard? Or to watch him maybe. Trump is anti war but wanted to be seen as tough, so Bolton served that purpose. Now that NK, IRAN and Afghanistan are winding down towards peace, Bolton isn’t needed anymore. Also my sources say that he was compromised a long time ago with Sex and even with Minors. So he could and likely was being blackmailed. Trump got what he needed and now he’s out.
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